Reina, 28 Years Old, English Teacher

The scrawny guy with the black hair has fallen asleep again.

Reina furrows her brow. In a normal school, she would have slapped the idiot on the head with a rolled up newspaper. But this was Stanzi Academy. Everything felt... weird, here. Her natural radar for danger and trouble were all in the red, and deep down, she knew why.

It wasn't like the two other teachers had left. It was like they had been disappeared. Nobody had heard from either of them since.

Hiroko's sister said that she'd file a missing person's report. But a cautious, anonymous enquiry had raised something very concerning. Apparently, the case had already been closed. A cold case. No leads. But... she'd never seen a single police officer visit the academy, or interview anyone at all. That just didn't make sense.

Something very fishy was afoot... And she felt like there was a target on every woman's back in this Academy. Except, perhaps, the Headmistress.

Reina is a survivor. She has made it through some extremely tough and sometimes dangerous situations by following her instincts. And her instincts right now told her that she needed to follow the Headmistress's instructions to the letter.

She rubs her wedding ring, and thinks of her husband. As soon as he gets back from his business trip, they need to have a very serious conversation about how to quickly and efficiently extract their lives from this town. And maybe even this country.

Better to be extra-lenient than not lenient enough.

"Wakey wakey, sweetheart." Reina coos softly, while gently rubbing his hair.

"Huh?" He says, sleepily. "Oh crap..."

"It's okay, honey." Reina says sweetly. "I know how difficult it can be to get to sleep in the modern age. So many... distractions... to keep us awake. But I do need you to try and pay attention, okay? I just don't want you to fall behind in class."

I hope that wasn't too patronizing. Reina thinks to herself. This is an 18 year old, after all.

Reina's brain rushes to think of some way to make it feel less like she's talking down to him like a child.

"Um..."

'I was like this at your age.' Nope, too patronizing.

'I mean no disrepect.' No, too direct.

'You can sleep when you're dead.' No, too harsh.

Reina realizes that she's now been standing there strugging to think of what to say for an awkward length of time.

"Um... Just imagine me in my underwear if you need something to keep you awake."

FUCK, WHAT DID I JUST SAY?!

But she's said it now, so she has to own it. She returns to the front of the class, trying not to look bashful and awkward, but also not look like she's strutting her stuff for the students.

FUCK FUCK FUCK.

"I've been doing that all lesson already, Teach."

The oldest student, the long haired guy at the back, spreads his legs and grabs his junk while looking directly at Reina. He shows absolutely zero fear of consequences. A couple of the young women in the class make disgusted sounds.

Treat the male students more leniently. Be harsher on the female students.

"Girls, please don't make such undignified sounds in my classroom." The fact that they're the ones who got told off, stuns them into silence.

This job is the most challenging teaching job she's ever had. Who would have thought that a job teaching adults would be MORE difficult.

After the students have left, all the teachers (except for the conspicuously missing two), have been summoned to an important, apparently urgent meeting, in a large classroom.

Acting like she's in a rush, the headmistress strides into the room. "Excellent, every single one of you has made it. I have places to be, so I will make this as quick as possible. Everybody is to immediately disrobe."

"I'm sorry, WHAT?!" The new replacement swimming teacher immediately objects.

"There is NO TIME FOR QUESTIONS!" The headmistress's powerful aura of dominance sweeps through the room.

Reina is the first to stand up and begin to disrobe. Other teachers soon follow suit, until most of the teachers are in their underwear. But, Reina notices that the headmistress is still tapping her foot impatiently. She understands, and she does not plan to be included in any weird punishment that gets dished out for non-compliance.

After taking a deep breath, Reina removes her underwear. A few of the other women go wide-eyed, but now that the ice has been broken, several other teachers do the same.

Finally, with a few more fierce stares from the scary headmistress, even the swimming teacher is getting her kit off.

"Now put these on."

The headmistress points to a pile of plastic bags in the corner. It quickly become apparent that each one is named, and inside, is a new outfit.

As the teachers find their outfits and put them on, they each experience the same dismay as they realize that these suit dresses appear to have been weirdly tailored. In some spots they are a couple of sizes too small and in others, too large. The resulting effect is that the outfits appear to be not-too-small to the untrained eye, but at the same time, perfectly accentuate each of the teacher's curves. Furthermore, the underwear is invariably somewhat more provocative and delicate than what they would normally wear.

"Miss Shinobu, if you will." The headmistress says calmly.

The deputy headmistress busies herself in collecting all the clothes that the teachers were wearing before into a large bin bag.

"These are you new clothes." The headmistress starts simply.

"Bullshit." The swimming teacher spits.

"YOU WOULD DO WELL TO LISTEN TO ME BEFORE YOU TALK BACK, YOUNG MADAM." The headmistress snarls.

"I'm 29." The swimming teacher wrinkles her nose at being called young. But seeing that none of the other teachers feel brave enough to join her retorts, she does seem rather more disarmed than before.

"There are several new rules for you to follow. Each minor rule you break will result in a minor punishment. A minor punishment means that the next morning, you will discover that your wardrobe has been altered further. It will arrive in a package on your doorstep before dawn."

"This is your ENTIRE wardrobe. You are to own no other clothes. Do you understand?"

"Um, I own other clothes." The swimming teacher clarifies.

"You do not. They have been taken for safekeeping." The headmistress responds simply.

"Did you break into my house?!" The swimming teacher demands furiously.

"I have done nothing of the sort." The headmistress emphasizes the word 'I'.

The swimming teacher is confused into silence.

"Rule one. No questioning the rules, or my authority.

"Rule two. Always wear your ENTIRE outfit as detailed in the accompanying instructions. A clean outfit will arrive each morning. As previously explained, as long as you have not broken any rules, your allocated staff uniform will not have been any further 'enhanced'."

"Rule three. NO discussion of ANY former staff member or student is permitted. Any and all discussion on these topics must be evaded, deflected, or ignored."

"Rule four. Male students must not be punished or discouraged from jeering at staff, or saying unpleasant things to them, or about them, or making rude gestures towards them.

"Rule five. Male students must not be punished or discouraged for any way they look at a teacher. This includes trying to peek up their skirts.

"Rule six. Male students must not be punished for trying to dislodge a teacher's clothes, for example, flipping up her skirt. They can be stopped, and chastized, but never receive any meaningful punishment. To be clear, a student who molests a teacher's body can be punished in a non-violent manner, but a student who only delicately touches his teacher's clothing is not to receive punishment.

"Rule seven. Any student who says anything in contradiction to these rules must be chastized. For female students, chastizement should include derogatory and/or sexual shaming.

"Rule eight. Any student who physically prevents something occuring which, according to these rules, is actually allowed, must be sent to my office for punishment.

"These are the minor rules."

"This is literally insane. Of course I'm not following any of that. None of us are. Right, ladies?" The new swimming teacher sounds outraged.

But the rest of the teachers just stay silent. It's only the headmistress who speaks next.

"The major rules are as follows. These are things that result in a major punishment."

"Rule one. No embezzlement. You are not to spend academy funds on personal expenses."

Reina winces. She had heard through the grapevine that Hiroko had been caught doing exactly that.

"Rule two. No violent punishments."

Absolutely everyone is aware that just before she disappeared, Rai had beaten a peeping Tom student with a bat.

"Rule three."

There's a pause for dramatic effect.

"We do not accept resignations, from staff OR students. Anyone who attempts to resign, earns a major punishment for not only themselves, but their peer below them in the staff or student register."

So that's how she plans to prevent everyone from just leaving. If you leave, they'll try to catch you. And even if you succeed, they'll do something horrible to one of your colleagues. Everyone here is a hostage.

"You are to make all of your female students aware of major rule three at the earliest opportunity. You are not to answer any of their questions."

"This is... This is..." The swimming teacher is rendered close to speechless.

"Does anybody have a problem with that?" The headmistress's gaze across the room is so fierce that it feels like it could kill someone who looked in her eyes for more than a moment.

"No ma'am. No problem at all. We're behind you one hundred percent. We're going to make this school into a learning heaven for these bold young men." Reina says with a cheery voice.

If all of them... No, if ANY of them are to escape from this Academy's clutches in one piece, they will have to play the long game.

Reina concludes that the most likely path to survival here, is to appear to be the best ally that the Headmistress ever had.

"No ma'am." Several other teachers echo Reina's initial words, albeit in much more shaky voices.

Reina is a survivor. She will survive, even if she has to be the one to lead these weaker women through the shark-infested waters ahead. One day, an opportunity will come for some or most of them to escape, and they will seize it.

When she returns that evening, Reina discovers that true to the Headmistress's word, every item of clothing in her house has vanished.

This pair of high heels, curve-accentuating white top, black blazer, and black skirt, along with the sheer lingerie she's wearing below them, are now the only items of clothing she owns.